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Monday, 1 May 2017

Swords of Cerebus Vol 4: The Palnu Trilogy

PAUL SLADE:

Published between 1981 and 1984, Dave's six Swords of Cerebus volumes were his first attempt to collect the book in a more permanent form. He gave each story included in these volumes a prose introduction, explaining where the book stood when he’d been working on that particular issue and how he was thinking of its prospects at the time. This is the second (and final) of Swords 4's two composite introductions, and it runs to a whopping five pages, covering The Palnu Triolgy (ie the Silverspoon strips from The Buyer's Guide and Cerebus #14-16). Dave's discussion of Hal Foster and Alex Raymond here is something he'd pick up again – and in much greater detail – in The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, of course. Also check out the full 'Swords Of Cerebus' Introductions Index.

"I’m not drawing a snake crawling out of his cage with the leader of the ‘Eye of the Pyramid’ juxtaposed in the foreground," says Dave. "Hell, no! I’m drawing the leader of the ‘Eye in the Pyramid’ flipping his giant schlong out at Cerebus, who’s going to cut it off."